Day Jar View

Received an uncharacteristically good joke via email this morning – also very topical in view of the current washout.

“It was announced today that the local climate in the UK should no longer be referred to as .”British Weather.’

Rather than offend a sizable portion of the population, it will now be referred to as ‘Muslim Weather.’

In other words – partly Sunni, but mostly Shi’ite.”

I’m all for promoting alternative languages, but the Council’s insistence (indeed legal obligation) on producing everything in both English and Welsh is puzzling.

In almost every other area of my life I can opt out of receiving paper: bank statements, gas bills, company invoices. But with the council, everything I receive is in both languages, and therefore sometimes on two separate bits of paper.

Why not ask me just once whether I want English or Welsh and be done with it?

I have to admit to a more-than-passing interest in the US Elections each time they roll around.

I don’t get too heavily involved in the policy detail, and I don’t donate any money to the candidate promising to save Americans a few cents on their $4 a gallon (I wish!) gasoline.

But as a piece of pure theatre, there really is no equal. Our own party conferences, viewed alongside their US equivalents, have a whiff of the church hall meeting about them. Half the time, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bake sale being conducted at the back during the breaks.

This time around, of course, the interest and the stakes are high in the US. They have the opportunity to elect the first black (actually mixed-race) man, or the first Female Vice-President (a gun-toting, global-warming-denier from Alaska). The good news is that at least one of them will make their way to the White House next January. But had Sarah Palin not joined the McCain ticket, I’m not sure that Americans would have been ready to elect either of them if the alternative had been two Conservative, middle-aged, white males.

Whataver, the inclusion of Palin makes this race all the more exciting: it will be touted as a race between a Black man and a Woman, naturally, but the choice isn’t that stark. Bush’s legacy has ensured that McCain had a fight on his hands from the start, and the emergence of Obama as a charismatic, eloquent smoothie from a mixed-race background would have been a black and white choice, literally. 

Now American voters have to decide whether they want an elitist Black man as President, or a pensioner who can’t remember how many homes he has (7 apparently) with a woman seemingly brought in to shore up the vote amongst bitter Clinton supporters who might be tempted to switch.

From this side of the pond, America’s image is in need of some serious TLC after the Iraq debacle, and its general foreign policy ham-fistedness. The best thing it could show to the world is that it has the presence of mind to show it can change, and elect Barack Obama in November. Sorry Sarah – your turn next time perhaps?

My route to and from work takes me past most of the Estate Agents in town, being located as they are pretty much all on one main road that runs through the town.

Over the past year or so that I’ve been walking that route, I’ve noticed on a number of occasions various members of staff playing games on the pc, surfing the net, chatting, and generally not doing much Estate Agenting.

Today when I looked in the window, two of the offices of one particular branch are empty – phones siting on the desk with the cable wrapped forlornly around. I can’t say I’ve ever felt huge sympathy for Estate Agents at the best of times, and I reckon that the current housing situation is in some part their fault, what with over-valuing over the past 10 years amongst other crimes.

However, there are people behind those shiny suits and company 1-series BMWs , and it seems that there a few of them now twiddling their thumbs at home, wondering where the next cheque is coming from. Not a nice situation for anyone.